Unhealthy food is not tastier for everybody: The “healthy = tasty” French intuition

Previous research demonstrated that, for US-Americans, unhealthy food is implicitly associated to tastiness. Based on intercultural differences in food perception between France and USA, our objective is to verify if such differences impact food-related implicit associations, taste evaluations, and food consumption. Our first study demonstrates that the opposite intuition exists in France: unhealthy food is spontaneously associated with bad taste, while healthy food is linked to tastiness. Our second study investigates how the healthy = tasty French intuition influences taste perceptions in a product test conducted in an experimental lab. Results indicate that a neutral food described as healthy is considered tastier, more pleasurable and of better quality than when it is described as unhealthy.

► We demonstrate that healthy food are implicitly associated with tastiness in France. ► The “unhealthy=tasty” American intuition identified previouslyis culture dependent. ► We examine changes in food perceptions according to health labels. ► Food described as healthy is considered tastier than when described as unhealthy.